What are the retrofit delivery challenges that this pilot is exploring solutions for?

How technology-enabled approaches could play a role in helping to address some of these complex and interlinked systemic challenges.

ENVIRONMENTAL

SOCIAL

ECONOMIC

CROSS-CUTTING

Need for retrofit:

Buildings are the second-largest source of GHG emissions in the UK, therefore retrofit is key to achieve wider net zero goals.³
The Government is proposing a deadline for all social housing to meet EPC C or better - according to reformed EPC metrics - by 2030 (currently 28% of housing association stock is below this standard) and net zero emissions by 2050.⁴
There is a risk of stranded assets (i.e. properties that become economically unviable due to irrecoverable expenditure) and a reduction in the stock of much-needed social housing if poor-performing assets cannot be occupied or need to be sold off by housing associations.⁵

Housing and health:

It is estimated that 6.1 million households in the UK are in fuel poverty.⁶
Poor quality housing leads to preventable health conditions and costs the NHS over £1bn in treatment bills.⁷

Funding challenges:

The Government’s Warm Homes: Social Housing Fund (WH:SHF) is providing valuable grant funding to complete retrofit works, but the £3.8bn total, which was originally committed by the Conservative government in 2019 to be allocated over 10 years, covers only a small proportion of the total cost. Private finance is needed to cover the remainder.⁸
Housing associations plan to invest £70bn upgrading existing homes to 2050. The National Housing Federation (NHF) estimates an additional £36bn is needed for housing associations to achieve full decarbonisation.⁹
74% of housing associations identify funding constraints as the biggest challenge to retrofit.¹⁰As organisations, housing associations face significant economic challenges due to the considerable competing demands on their finite funding resources, including developing new homes, health and safety and remediation works, energy efficiency upgrade requirements, and more.

Implementation challenges:

Evidence shows that EPCs are often inaccurate and offer little correlation with a building’s thermal performance and energy use.¹¹This results in several significant risks:

That retrofit based purely on EPCs does not accurately measure or target energy efficiency and heating solutions to deliver net zero homes.¹²
Of contributing to ‘sick building syndrome’ if homes are over-insulated without sufficient ventilation, trapping moisture and pollutants, creating an environment conducive to humidity problems and poor air quality.¹³
That public and private money is being used inefficiently (in a sector already grappling with significant funding challenges).

Barriers to adoption of technology-enabled solutions:

There are various barriers to widespread adoption of technology-enabled solutions in the social housing sector. These include:

Perceptions of cost, and natural resistance of housing associations due to the need for long-term planning and long-term payback on initial outlay.¹⁴
Resident apprehension towards installing technology in homes, and resistance to perceived disruption.¹⁵
Cost and length of time required for deployment, including requirement for a large amount of monitoring equipment (e.g. sensors), particularly if utilising across a large portfolio.